White Sox In Extension Talks With Tim Anderson

The White Sox are engaged in extension talks with young shortstop Tim Anderson, according to MLB.com’s Scott Merkin (via Twitter).

Just how far along the sides are isn’t clear at this time, though Anderson has been out of action for what the team has labeled “personal reasons.” A team source would neither confirm nor deny the discussions with Colleen Kane of the Chicago Tribune (via Twitter), but did note that no announcement is expected today.

Anderson, 23, hasn’t even yet reached a full year of MLB service time. He picked up 115 days on the active roster in 2016, which means he’s on track to reach arbitration eligibility in 2020 and qualify for free agency in 2023.

Long considered a quality prospect, Anderson provided a strong debut season last year. Over 431 plate appearances, he posted a .283/.306/.432 batting line with nine home runs and ten stolen bases. He also delivered 22 doubles and six triples in his first go at the big leagues.

Anderson also showed stellar glovework at short, racking up well-above-average ratings from both UZR and DRS despite recording 14 errors. That sets a solid floor moving forward, though it remains to be seen just how much offense Anderson will deliver over the long haul.

The big question with Anderson’s bat is whether he can improve upon (or overcome) his rather ugly plate discipline marks. In 2016, he recorded a 27.1% strikeout rate while walking in just 3.0% of his plate appearances. That continued a long history of less-than-ideal K/BB rates in the minors.

Further, though he has long run a lofty batting average on balls in play in the minors, Anderson’s .375 BABIP seems likely to regress. Just three qualifying hitters posted higher marks last year. It remains to be seen, too, whether Anderson can continue the power boost he showed in 2016; his 13 dingers between the majors and highest level of the minors were easily a personal best, and his .149 isolated slugging mark also outpaced his typical levels.

That said, there are perhaps some reasons to believe Anderson can continue to grow as a hitter. The former first-round pick and consensus top-100 prospect certainly has the pedigree, and it’s promising that he was able to produce in the majors despite a fairly aggressive promotion up the ladder. Plus, he might add yet more value on the bases, as he did swiped 49 bags in 125 games at Double-A in 2015.

Prospective terms aren’t yet known. It’s rare to see extensions occur at this early stage of a player’s career, and no player with less than a year of service has scored more than $20MM guaranteed. That’s how much Chris Archer took home in the spring of 2014; he’s just one of four such players to score a long-term deal since Evan Longoria’s six-year, $17.5MM pact back in 2008.

He certainly has promise, but those .306 OBP and 9:1 K:BB ratio are yellow flags. All the same, it would be refreshing for the WS to lock in a young starting SS.
Going to be a long season on the South Side.

I think the fact that he put up a really solid overall rookie season despite a .306 OBP and 9:1 K:BB ratio shows just how high his floor actually is. I’d imagine those numbers will improve over time, but even if they don’t, he’s still a valuable young asset. And assuming he does take that next step in improving on those numbers, he’ll become extremely valuable for the Sox.

Just taking last year as a small sample – he hit .276/.284/.417 with only 2 walks (57:2 K:BB lol) in his first two months in the bigs (44 starts), and then he followed that up with a slash of .289/.325/.445 with 11 walks (about 6:1 K:BB) in his final two months (54 starts). Hopefully he can continue to improve on those second half-ish numbers.

That philosophy worked well with Chris Sale, Jose Quintana and Adam Eaton, ironically giving each of them added trade value as the White Sox now undertake a long overdue rebuild. The difference with each of those players is that they had established a little longer resume of MLB success and were closer to their first year of arbitration eligibility than where Tim Anderson is presently.

It should be noted that Tim Anderson is a late bloomer when it comes to his baseball pedigree. He was a star basketball player in high school in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he led his team to a state championship. Anderson didn’t even begin playing high school ball until his junior season but was a quick study as an outfielder and infielder before he graduated.

Anderson only received a single baseball scholarship, to a junior college in Mississippi. He had a decent enough freshman season but was on no MLB organizations radar, failing to be selected in the 2012 June Rule 4 draft. That changed following a stellar sophomore season, after which the White Sox made him their first round selection, the 17th overall pick in the 2013 draft.

The fact that Anderson rose so quickly through the White Sox minor league system with his limited experience as a baseball player is a testament to his ability and athleticism. He might also prove to be one of the few elite amateur multi-sport athletes selected in the Kenny Williams era who actually succeeds as a MLB player.

those of you who haven’t watched any Korea games or archives in the world baseball classic won’t know what I’m talking about maybe. But, he reminds me of a byung-hun min from their team only Anderson to the shortstop not a leftfielder but I think offence of statistics might be the same if any of you know about this player or have seen the Korea games you can tell me if I’m wrong